On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 3:22 PM, gabriel <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello all, > > I'm gabe, a prospective GSoCer, and I just found/read through the last month > of this list. When I first read about Sugar, this was exactly the kind of > thing I had hoped was happening--in particular the API quiz/math problem > collection. > > A bit about me: > I'm a graduating math major at the university of chicago; I've been teaching > to highschool and junior-high students through the university for the past > four years. I started programming relatively intensively last September, and > am new to (and excited about) the open source world.
Welcome aboard, though I'm also new to the project. :-D > My thoughts on the math API: > I think another really positive aspect to the development of a library of > math problems which can be imported to games or quizes, etc. is that it > enables us to focus in on the pedagogical aspects of the project. While > there's something uniquely great about 'hands-on' building blocks (to show > e.g. how to add numbers in a specific base), a SUGAR math program could make > visualizations possible in a routine way that isn't possible in a book--the > API could flesh out these possibilities. These, and the ideas that follow look like good goals, but as proposed, the quiz/question API wouldn't attempt to be quite so ambitious, nor restricted to mathematical questions. > Concretely, there could be hints/pictures associated to math problems in the > API so that, for instance, later in the actual games/quizes, the student > will be able to ask for hints / be given hints if they're incorrect. Hints > can be text/pictures/animations, etc. What do people think about including > this kind of functionality in the API? Also: there could be multiple types > of hints/pictures for each question. The hints themselves could be grouped, > so that we might get a feel for what kind of thinking works to explain the > concept to the individual student. The Moodle question formats[1] provide some provision for explanations/comments along with the answer(s) for questions, so the work to make those formats importable with the API will suport at least that much. [snip example of multiplication = repeated addition hint] > Of course, grouping problems together is essential. The game/quiz would > ideally want to know what the student does and doesn't understand, and be > able to respond accordingly. The taxonomies for doing this, I don't well understand, not do I see any simple subset that is more useful than what one might call "difficulty", "level", or "category". The categorization and query/retrieval of appropriate questions is a natural extension of the (simple) proposed question API. > I don't remember reading this in the list, but I think this must be what > everyone is thinking: Many/most of the problems in the API should be > generalizable (e.g. with random() quantities associated). This is something that can't be done for "general" questions, but for mathematical questions of certain forms it makes a lot of sense. Perhaps using the API's abstractions to allow asking for generated questions of a certain class would be appropriate. [snip importance of distributive rules in early math] > While I know there are tons of math problems that are on people's minds, I > haven't gotten a sense that the API development is actually in progress. Is > it? How can I help? I've started work on a basic GIFT[2] format parser and skeleton of the API here[3], though there's not much more than a few hours of work done yet. Very much not working and in early prototype/design stages. Still trying to drum up interest (and opinion). [snip description of Geometry visualization software] [1] http://docs.moodle.org/en/Import_questions [2] http://docs.moodle.org/en/GIFT [3] http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/question-support-api Greg S. _______________________________________________ FourthGradeMath mailing list [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/fourthgrademath
